Throughout these past couple months, I have also worked on other productions being produced by my fellow
classmates as we reached the end of our degree. Our production group of me, Leah, Jamila, and Georgia, worked together as a team to help create each other's final projects to the best of our abilities. Illustrated below is my role in each of their productions, and how we overcame any challenges faced. In my production, Leah was assistant producer, Jamila was location scout, and Georgia was the stylist.
Leah's documentary - Spiking
Leah's chosen project was a short documentary about the prevalent issue of spiking. Leah wanted to encapsulate the deep stories of victims of spiking and tell this in an informative way by using interviewees but keeping identities anonymous. My role in Leah's production was lighting. As Leah had decided on an indoor location, lighting would be very important for her documentary. I rented the Ianiro Lilliput lighting kit from the university equipment room, as I used these lights once before on another production before Covid-19 and found them to be very good yet easy to operate.
Leah and I set up the lights after all the crew had arrived and shortly before the interviewees arrived. Leah chose the corner of her living room as the main filming space, so I set up the three lights with this in mind, around the chair. I actually ended up only using two of the three lights, as the third made the shot too blinding. I made sure to alter the lights in accordance with what worked best on camera whilst collaborating with Georgia, and then checking Leah was happy with the shot.
The lights can get very hot, so I ensured that when the crew and the interviewees were moving around that they were aware of this. The filming location was a bit cramped, so I felt it was important to raise this issue. After we had completed filming, I made sure to allow the lights to cool before packing them away.
The first critical incident we faced during Leah's production was not being able to rent microphone equipment due to staff sickness at the university, because unfortunately we all decided on Leah's shooting day quite last minute. As the crew was all final year students, it was difficult finding days we were all free to film, for all of our productions. To overcome this issue we used the microphone on Leah's phone to record the audio, to ensure the best audio quality possible which she would later matchup whilst editing. This meant that we had to rearrange the filming setup slightly to ensure the phone was not in shot.
The second critical incident our production group faced during Leah's production was ensuring the questions asked to the interviewees were not intrusive or upsetting. Spiking is a sensitive topic, and the interviewees were two people who had experienced being spiked themselves. In order to be respectful of the interviewees, we overcame this challenge by asking them to tell their story in as much or as little detail they are comfortable with. The shoot day ended up being successful and Leah retrieved all the footage she needed for her documentary, as she said she was using stock footage for the b-roll clips. Our production team worked well to the brief given by Leah.
Jamila's music video - 'Better as Friends'
My role in Jamila's final production was 1st Assistant Director. The narrative of the music video revolves around the artist reflecting on his breakup, to relate to the music and lyrics, as he lip-syncs to the song. My role meant that I was in charge of the logistics and to oversee the productions schedule, cast, crew, and any other assistance needed from Jamila to ensure things ran smoothly whilst planning and shooting.
Our first shoot day was based in Southend because this is where Jamila's artist is based. When Jamila was planning her production he actually lived in Brighton, but due to new circumstances he had moved and could not travel back to Brighton for the shoot. This meant that Jamila and I arranged for the crew to travel to Southend. Before leaving I made sure to check Jamila had everything, as 1st Assistant Director's must be very organised.
One critical incident we faced was that when we were filming the boat scenes there was a very strong, cold wind. Unfortunately for Jamila's artist he couldn't wear a coat during shooting, so I made sure that he could wear it as soon as there was a cut so that he could stay warm. A second incident we faced during this scene was that the camera battery died. Jamila previously had issues charging the batteries due to faulty equipment, and had brought a spare battery, but unfortunately the batteries just weren't holding charge. This meant that we had to cut the shooting day short, due to Jamila's request, however she still seemed happy with the amount of footage she acquired. We arranged to reschedule and complete shooting another day.
Our second shoot day was in Brighton. Jamila originally wanted it to be in Southend also but we were struggling to find a day we were all completely free. This meant that we decided we would just complete the last scene in Brighton, where we are all based, and get it finished one evening. I assisted Jamila with arrangements for this shoot and was sure to clarify a time for the cast and crew to arrive, letting them know how much of their time would be needed and if they needed to bring anything. I also worked closely alongside Georgia during both shoots for anything she needed help with. Overall, Jamila ended up pleased will her music video and I think we all helped her well as a crew.
Georgia's documentary - Racial preferencing
Georgia had originally planned on shooting a music video for her friend Casey, who's just beginning her music career, but due to inconveniences this was changed to a documentary. Georgia was sad she couldn't complete the music video, but racial preferencing was a topic she finds very interesting so she was still happy to change her idea to this. Georgia wanted to look at racial preferencing using interviews, to examine how this can affect the feelings and self-worth of people of colour. My role in her music video was going to be editor, so I stayed with this role once she changed her idea. Jamila was also editor for this production.
As it was a serious documentary, Jamila and I chose to portray this through the editing. I firstly selected clips and relevant b-roll footage and trimmed it down for Jamila to use. There were quite a few takes for some shots, so I made sure to look through them all precisely before selecting the best shot to use. I then trimmed any unwanted excess and also used the Effect Controls panel to increase the volume of clips which were a bit quiet. Myself and Jamila worked closely alongside Georgia during the editing process, ensuring to listen to any changes she wanted made or any feedback she had for us.
Documentaries don't tend to have any SFX or noticeable effects, so we tried to fit to the theme as closely as possible. Georgia had managed to collect some good interviews, asking appropriate and thought-provoking questions. In the end, Georgia was pleased with the results and thanked all of us for our contribution.
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